If you've been following my Instagram or my blog posting from last time, you probably remember that I was heading to Oregon and also Olympic National Park. Our trip was beautiful, especially being surrounded by so much greenery. The weather, however, was another story - cold and windy. It was definitely not beach weather.

Summer is almost here which is making me think about nice iced coffees, fun cocktails, and cold-pressed juices. Although these are probably drinks you can enjoy all season round, I prefer to have drinks that are hot during the cooler weathers: hot tea, hot coffee, hot chocolate. In thinking about drinks I'm craving this summer, let's talk about a common phrasal verb related to drinking: drink up!

I talk about phrasal verbs a lot on my blog because it's very important when learning English. We can learn the individual meaning of words, such as "drink" but when we put it with another word such as, "up," it will carry a different meaning. Phrasal verbs are short phrases usually consisting of two words made of a verb and an adverb or preposition.

You may know the word "drink" is to take liquid into your mouth and swallow. Drink water, drink juice, drink wine. The phrasal verb to "drink up" means to drink all of something completely.

There are usually three ways we can use this. To drink up or drink something up or drink up something.

In the present simple we use drink up or drinking up in the -ing form. The past simple of this phrasal verb is drank up (The milk was going bad so I drank it all up).

EAT UP is another phrasal word that's very similar. Instead of drinking something completely, we eat something completely."Eat up! This is your last meal of the day!"
"Eat your vegetables up!"

If you'd like to look at some other common phrasal verbs in English, the English Club has a great table here.

For the past week the weather in Seattle has been very rainy, windy, and gloomy. I know most of you will think, "but isn't Seattle known for being gloomy and rainy anyway?" Trust me, it's not always! It has, however, seemed this way for days and days now.

This kind of weather makes me want to curl up in my warm bed with my fleece socks on, a nice cup of tea in one hand and a book in another. It makes me want to just "chill."

The word "chill" can be used to mean multiple things : to hang out (intransitive verb), to calm down (verb), someone who is very relaxed and easygoing (adjective), or sensation of coldness (noun).

When I say I want to "chill" because of the rainy windy weather I mean I just want to relax, hang out and do nothing.

This is the same meaning as the slang, chillin'

In this cold, rainy weather, I would just be in my bed chillin'.

You can say to someone , "I'm just chillin' at home" or "I'm chillin' at my friend's place"

**If you have the energy to learn another phrase with the word "chill", the phrasal verb "chill out" is a good one. You might have heard it in movies before. It means to take it easy, calm down. For example, if you're very worried about a work presentation, your spouse may say, "You need to chill out! You'll be fine!" This means he/she is telling you to relax, calm down, don't get to excited. Everything will be OK!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great celebration - big or small (and maybe had meaningful conversations with my New Years Card Game!)

The beginning of the year is the perfect time to make plans for the rest of the year. New plans or old plans, it's always good to have some idea of things you want to achieve and accomplish (or continue) this new year.

'Achieve' (uh-cheev) is a verb meaning to do or get something successfully by good effort.

For example,

I achieved (gained successfully) the highest score in my class.

In order to achieve (gain successfully, obtain) a full scholarship to college, Thomas studied day and night.

What are some things you want to achieve this year? Learn to speak French? Learn to surf? Write your book? Publish my your book? Visit the tallest building in the world? or achieve inner happiness?

In order to keep reminding yourself of the things you want to achieve in 2016, you must write them down and keep them somewhere you could see all the time because sometimes the ups and downs of life will make it hard for us to remember things we wanted to do. We may also push these things to the side so that we could take care of the kids, help others, work overtime to make our boss happy.

This is why I've created a little piece of art you could write on and place in your bedroom, office, on your refrigerator to remind yourself of four main things you want to achieve this year. Life is short, think about what you want to achieve this year and make a promise to yourself to do it by the end of the year.

The holiday season can be a very stressful time for many people - you have to buy and wrap gifts, prepare holidays meals, write cards, clean the house. There's a lot to do! Although the holiday season is a fun and happy time to spend with family and friends it can also be stressful for some.

Stressful is an adjective to describe something that causes the feeling of worry or distress.If I am stressed or stressed out, I am very anxious or worried. People are stressed in many situations - before an exam, an interview, a competition, before going to the doctor. There are many things in life that can cause stress!

If you've taken a look at the picture above, you can tell these people are stressed! "Get outta my way" and "stay back" are both not very friendly phrases to use but it shows that sometimes when we're in a panic, we tend to be very rude and inconsiderate. The word "outta" is a contraction of "out of." It's used commonly in informal speech. This phrase means, don't stand in my path, move away! "Stay back" has almost the same meaning - don't come closer, move away!

If you're feeling a bit stressed during this time of year, here's a few tips to help you deal with it:

1. STOP BEING A PERFECTIONISTSometimes we demand everything to go smoothly that we reject anything that is less than perfect. This is the meaning of a perfectionist - someone who demands high standard or perfection. It's not always a bad thing to be a perfectionist, but sometimes it can cause a lot of mental and physical stress. So slow down and stop demanding everything to be perfect! You don't have to buy the best gifts or have the most beautiful holiday decorations, these things are not the most important.

2. ASK FOR HELPIt's hard for us to ask for help sometimes as we don't want to bother others, but there may be people who actually want to help and would find it an honor to be asked. So don't be afraid to get some assistance even if it's from your children, sibling, coworker, or spouse. Sharing a task together can be a great way to spend time together.

3. DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELFThe holiday season may sometimes seem like it's all about others - buying gifts for others, cooking for others, . Take some time to do something you like, for yourself. It doesn't have to be big, maybe sit down and enjoy an afternoon coffee, take a walk, or buy your favorite flowers.

4. HELP OTHERSWhat better way to relieve stress than to focus your attention on helping others who need it? Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves and things that are not so important that we forget to appreciate all the things that we already have. By helping others, we can focus our attention on what matters most during this holiday.

5. THINK ABOUT WHATS IMPORTANTSometimes we are so concerned about all the little things that we forget what's important. Being able to spend time with loved ones is more important than what kind of wrapping paper to buy. Don't miss out on special opportunities by spending time stressing out on things that are not important!

Depending on where you live in the world, Halloween could either be today or tomorrow. Some of you might not celebrate Halloween, but here in the U.S. where I'm living now, Halloween is quite a big deal! Kids (and adults) like to dress up either as scary characters or imitate someone famous. Kids like to go trick or treating in the evening in their costumes. You can find the meaning of this term from my Halloween posting last year over here.

If you don't have time to come up with a last-minute costume idea, print out my Emergency Halloween Disguise here. Cut around the over-sized eyebrow, glasses, and mustache. Stick them on to disguise yourself.

A 'disguise' (noun) is something that can change your appearance or hide who you are. If I 'disguise' (verb) myself, it means I pretend to be someone else. During Halloween people like to disguise themselves and be someone else! Who do you want to dress up as this year?